Dan Choi was an Iraq War veteran, a graduate of West Point and a trained Arabic linguist. I ran into Choi the day after he received his official discharge for violating the military’s so-called "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy.

President Obama has once again pledged to repeal "don’t ask, don’t tell," which bars openly gay men and lesbians from serving in the military. But many queer activists are frustrated with Obama for neither following through on previous vows nor offering a new timetable. We speak with West Point graduate and Iraq war veteran Lieutenant Dan Choi, who’s facing discharge from the military for revealing he is gay. He was...

Tens of thousands took to the streets of Washington, DC on Sunday to continue the nationwide fight for equal protection for LGBT people in all matters governed by civil law. It’s been described as the largest demonstration for gay rights in the nation’s capital in over a decade. We speak with attorney and longtime gay rights activist Urvashi Vaid about the state of the gay rights movement and the Obama administration’s stance...

Forty years after Stonewall, where is the gay rights movement headed? What does the focus on marriage equality mean for the goals of gay liberation? We speak with activist, writer and historian, Lisa Duggan. "It remains to be seen whether a call for full civil equality can produce mass mobilization, or whether it might soon be reduced to a call for gay marriage only, or worse, to the production of just another commercially sponsored gay...

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama signed a memorandum to extend some, but not all, benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. Comprehensive healthcare, for example, is not included. President Obama’s promise to work to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, Wednesday came one week after his administration filed a controversial legal brief supporting DOMA, an action which greatly disappointed activists fighting for...

Next week, the Senate will take up two controversial pieces of legislation on the cutting edge of civil rights in this country. The Defense of Marriage Act or DOMA says that the federal government refuses to recognize same sex marriages and allows states to do the same. While the White House has acknowledged that bigotry and divisiveness are driving this law, President Clinton has pledged to sign it. The gay and lesbian community has reacted...